It is a simple combination of medical advances and demographics that has caused a great increase in the need for crushing pre-formed medication tablets for proper ingestion by patients having diminished swallowing capabilities. At one point, medications, such as “headache powders” were dispensed in a powdered form. As the technology of the pharmaceutical industry improved, it became possible to form very carefully measured dosages of the medications in a compressed, pre-formed tablet. While the tablet is extremely useful to the pharmaceutical manufacturer in dispensing precise numbers of dosages that can be handled in a clean and efficient manner, the tablet may present significant difficulties to the patient, especially the elderly, the weakened and those with swallowing difficulties. As the number of medications increases, the number of patients who have difficulty with swallowing has also increased.
It is desirable to provide a device where a smooth and quiet crushing action can be imparted to a variety of sizes and shapes of tablets, without requiring an impact force. The crushing should result in a small average particle size, preferably occurring in a disposable container, to retain and dispense the entire dosage in a manner that does not breach the container or cause cross contamination when the device is used with different medications. It is also desirable to provide clear and unobstructed access to all of the crushing surfaces, for ease of cleaning when necessary. It is also desirable to provide a device that can accommodate pill containers that are different from the conventional flat pouches that have been known in the prior art, if and when such different containers are developed.
In the prior art solutions known to the inventor, what appears to be a common element is that a lever action is used between a pair of opposing crushing faces, which are usually referred to as a platen and an anvil. Further, the known prior art solutions seem to position the pill container vertically, a result of which is that a particle that is broken away from the pill, especially in the initial breakage, can fall by gravity out of the field where the most active crushing is occurring. This can result in no further, or secondary, crushing of the particle, with the result of a larger average particle size.
It is therefore an advantage of the embodiments disclosed herein to provide a pill crushing device that provides at least some of the desired objectives.